Saudi Arabia has at last relented and agreed to issue the required visas for the Sri Lankan team led by the Sri Lanka’s Acting Foreign Minister Hussein Bhaila to visit Saudi Arabia. The primary mission of this team is to seek a pardon from the parents of an infant who died under the care of teenage Rizana Nafeek, Sri Lankan housemaid. She was sentenced on 16 June to be beheaded by a three-member bench of the Dawadmi High Court in Riyad.

Asian Tribune was informed by reliable sources that Velupillai Prabakaran, leader of the Tamil Tigers, has ordered Jeyam, Special Commander of the LTTE in the Batticaloa Amparai district, to return to Vanni with his cadres, leaving behind a minimum force of 30 to 50 cadres. Cadres left behind are to work with the intelligence group of the outfit in disrupting the peace and stability in the region. The remainder of the 360 hardcore Tigers will now seek to escape the cordon thrown by the Security Forces.

Ceylon Cold Stores Ltd launched two new sugar free additions ‘Orange Barley Light ’ and ‘Lemonade Light’ to the Sri Lankan market. ‘Orange Barley Light’ and ‘Lemonade Light’ now join ‘EGB Light’ as zero calorie sugar free drink products which promise to revolutionize the local market by being a ‘must have’ beverage for consumers who seek products of this nature. The two Light beverages are available in the 1.5 litre packs.

The Chief Secretary to the Eastern Province, an important civil administrator of the Sri Lanka government was shot dead by a suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) gunman while he was working in his office, Defense Ministry sources said. “I unequivocally condemn the cowardly assassination today, of Mr. Herath Abeyweera, Chief Secretary of the Eastern Province by terrorists of the LTTE. This is yet another act of savagery by the LTTE in its campaign of terror to achieve its goal of a separate state, allegedly for the liberation of the Tamil people who are themselves severely oppressed by its violence and terror,” said President Mahinda Rajapaksa issuing message of condolence to the family of the late Abeyweera.

This note is with reference to Mr Gonsalkorale's article on the possibility of a change in the LTTE strategy following the fall of Thoppigala that appeared in the Asian Tribune on 14 July 2007. The article is a refreshing change from the usual nonsense we hear about Sinhala chauvinists, discrimination and harassment and the like. However, as most writers (journalists?) who have "arrived" recently into this sphere, he too appears to have embraced the views propagated by LTTE propaganda. By ‘recently’, I include those who started writing as late as 15 years ago, particularly those who have not done any research to establish facts.

In 1942, Mahatma M K Gandhi issued the last call for independence of India from British rule. On the grounds of what is now known as August Kranti Maidan, he delivered a stirring speech, asking every Indian to lay down their life, if necessary, in the cause of freedom. He gave them this mantra: "Do or Die"; at the same time, he asked the British to 'Quit India’.The response of the British government was to place Gandhi under arrest, and virtually the entire Congress leadership was to find itself behind bars, not to be released until after the conclusion of the war. A few months after Gandhi and Kasturba had been placed in confinement in the Aga Khan's Palace in Pune, Kasturba passed away: this was a terrible blow to Gandhi, following closely on the heels of the death of his private secretary of many years, the gifted Mahadev Desai.

Management of the World renowned “One Village –One Product” Programme [OVOP] expands their arms to Sri Lanka to identify three products from each district and improve on line with designing, packing and marketing. Mr.Kenji Ohno JAICA Senior Volunteer will be residing at Galle or Kalutara to implement this program. Mr .Ranjith Abeygunawardane of RADA will coordinate the project activities and they have an idea to open up pilot shop in tourist area in due course and furthermore look at possibility for identifying exportable products from these two districts.

When deadly Tsunami struck most parts of the Sri Lankan shores, some members of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka, led by its President, Nawaz Rajabdeen set out to survey the damage caused to the business, specially the Small and Medium entrepreneurs on the day of the disaster 26th December 2005 itself.

The Buddhist community in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is going to donate a few strands of a lock of hair believed to have come from Gauthama the Buddha now enshrined in a Buddhist temple in Chittagong. "The Sri Lankan government has again made the request for the sacred hair through the government. We have agreed to donate part of this sacred hair as a gesture of goodwill to our Sri Lankan brothers," Ajit Ranjan Barua, President of Bangladesh Buddhist Association said.

By injecting tons of needless filth into the Presidential campaign, the Bharatiya Janata Party may have harmed its prospects more than any of its blessed followers would have imagined. That the party with a spokeswoman has a bias against women may be only among the lesser damages. The more serious problem could be one of credibility and trying to outlive the charge that the BJP is the party that has made half-truths the axis of its propaganda and cannot make any point without drawing from its vast reservoir of dirty tricks and slander.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters used a visit to the Solomon Islands last week to threaten Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare with the withdrawal of aid unless his government ended its attempts to rein in the activities of the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission (RAMSI) and acceded to demands over key appointments. According to the "New Zealand Herald" on July 11, Peters spent a “tense hour” talking to Sogavare about the “contentious issues” in a meeting that coincided with the swearing in of constitutional lawyer Julian Moti as attorney-general. Mohammed Jahir Khan, a Fijian, had already been installed as police commissioner.

A small amount of water used to cool radioactive material at a Japanese nuclear reactor leaked into the Sea of Japan due to the massive earthquake yesterday, though officials insisted "it posed no danger". The leak took place at one of the seven units at the power company's sprawling Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility, the largest nuclear-power-producing site in the world. The 6.8 magnitude earthquake shook Japan's northwest coast Monday, setting off a fire at the world's most powerful nuclear power plant and causing the nuclear reactor to spill radioactive water into the sea.